How to Get a (Love) Life Read Free Page B

can call the people back.’
    ‘Nicola, you never play with me. Always work, work, work.’ He sighed. I pictured his peachy lips in a childish pout.
    ‘Yes, well, it is my job,’ I reminded him, reaching out to put my pencil back in its place, on the right of the keyboard. ‘So, Chris …’
    ‘So, Nicola,’ he teased, not at all put off by my clearly unenthusiastic tone.
    ‘Chris.’ I repeated.
    Caroline gave me another quizzical look; I shifted a little under her gaze.
    ‘ Nicola .’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Nicola, Nicola, Nicola,’ he went on, ‘my answer is …’ he paused, and I waited, refusing to give him any new distraction.
    ‘It’s a …’
    I waited some more.
    ‘A … yes!’ he exclaimed grandly.
    I exhaled quickly and swung into action. ‘Wonderful, that is wonderful. So, I’ll just book that in and let you know when you need to be there.’
    ‘You do that, Nicolllllla.’
    ‘I will. Okay, well, that’s everything!’ I said briskly, the end of the phone call in sight.
    ‘Oh, and Nicolllllla,’ he drawled in an irritating sing-song voice.
    ‘Yes, Chris?’ I gritted my teeth.
    ‘I’ll be seeing you soooon,’ he whispered. Then, with a roar of laughter, he hung up. I stared blankly at the receiver.
    Caroline didn’t look up from her work. ‘Prick,’ she muttered and I gave a snort of laughter in reply.

Chapter Three
    As usual, the morning swept by, the phone rang off the hook and I barely even had time to sip at my eleven o’clock glass of chilled mineral water. At five to one, I swivelled around in my chair. Caroline looked up.
    ‘It must be five to one,’ she smirked.
    ‘Ha ha ha, yes, you win.’
    ‘You are as regular as a watch.’
    I shrugged. I liked routine! Caroline teased me about it but I didn’t get what was so bad about wanting to do things on time. I took out a cellophane sandwich bag from the top drawer of my desk.
    ‘Ooh, what are you splurging on today then?’ taunted Caroline, accustomed to my weekly meal plan. ‘Let me guess,’ she put both hands to the side of her head and massaged her temples in the manner of a psychic. ‘It’s … avocado salad with pine nuts?’
    I silently produced my avocado salad with pine nuts from the container in the bag. I only glanced up when she cackled and yelled ‘Bingo!’ My cheeks flushed with heat. I lifted out my cutlery, getting up to wash it carefully in our miniscule kitchen, before popping a tea towel on my desk so nothing could spill. I sat back down and started eating my salad. As I chewed, my mouth watered at the thought of my chocolate mini roll, not to be eaten until one fifteen. I fantasised about the smooth case of chocolate, giving way to the succulent sponge underneath, made complete by the spiral of cream piped through it. I stared longingly at it over my lettuce.
    Caroline giggled. ‘I dare you to leave it till half past one,’ she said, pointing at the mini roll.
    I laughed casually, in an attempt to pretend that I was unbothered. But I would not be leaving it until half past one. I liked to eat my mini roll at quarter past one. There was nothing weird about that.
    ‘Go on, Nicola,’ she teased, ‘leave it till half past, I double dare you.’
    Caroline often dared me to do things. She often double dared me. Sometimes she even double dared me with no returns. Of course, I never took her up on them.
    ‘Go away,’ I said, chomping decisively down on a carrot stick and eyeing my mini roll with concern. Would she take my mini roll to prove a point? Would she ruin my one pleasurable lunchtime treat? I bit my lip.
    I nibbled at the lettuce, enjoying the taste of the avocado and wishing for a moment that I’d added some dressing. But the moment passed and the voice of my super thin mother echoed around the office space, ‘Little pickers wear bigger knickers.’
    I took another look at the mini roll.
    Caroline sighed mournfully as she watched me delicately picking through my first course. ‘I wish I could